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PREVIEW: Scalarama at The Mills // Westworld

This September we’re celebrating the culmination of our 2015 Minicine at The Mills programme with a trip to the theme park! Don’t worry though, it’s not Jurassic Park so we won’t have to worry about being hunted by bloodthirsty killers. Lolz! Oh, wait a minute…

Nominated for Hugo and Saturn awards, Westworld (1973) is a sci-fi western thriller in which the rich and wealthy of the future can pay $1,000 a day to inhabit a manufactured reality. The amusement park Delos offers three such realities; Medieval World, Roman World and the titular Westworld where patrons spend their stay among the cowboys and dancing girls of the wild west. The three ‘worlds’ are populated by lifelike androids programmed to act as a knight, a centurion or a sheriff. So far so much better than Disneyland. that is until everything goes Skynet and the robots begin to malfunction and start killing customers. You can only imagine the reviews on Tripadvisor.

Written and directed by Michael Crichton, Westworld shares much in common with his most famous work of literature ‘Jurassic Park’. You know the one – a theme park where genetically engineered dinosaurs are the main attraction becomes a feeding ground for the big lizards when security systems are shut down and the park’s visitors are picked off one-by-one and we get to see Jeff Goldblum topless (NSFW).

A sign of Westworld‘s enduring popularity and cult status, HBO recently premiered a teaser trailer for their forthcoming ‘Westworld’ television adaptation, created by Jonathan Nolan and executive produced by JJ Abrams.

It’s been yet another diverse and varied year for Minicine with our 2015 programme recently shortlisted for the Cinema For All Best Film Programming Award, which we received a distinction for last year. Our Mills strand began the year showcasing the visually stunning seclusion of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and even Greenland with the popular Nordic Season. We then put an extra Spring in our step with There’s No ‘I’ In Team Season with a selection of world cinema documentaries that featured communities utilising sport as a means of furthering themselves. Mixed Nuts Season too has proven highly popular so far, with What We Do in the Shadows selling out in only five days. There has been much excitement about this screening too, so don’t delay in getting your tickets booked!

Westworld screens at Armley Mills Industrial Museum on Thursday 17 September from 7pm. Doors open at 630pm and the feature presentation will be preceded by a selection of short films. As always, there’ll be free cake on hand and we’ll have a few surprises too. Tickets are available from our online ticket office.

Scalarama is an annual celebration of cinema taking place every September. The season aims to unite all those who are passionate about showing films to one another, and to champion communal film watching and the cinema experience. Scalarama takes the form of a month long season of screenings taking place across the world at a wide range of venues, with all different types of exhibitors showcasing films from across the history of cinema and from all parts of the world.